Jackson's Surprise
by watermellon123
Summary: Melissa is worried about friendships, but then with one sentence from Jackson these fears of Mel's grow even bigger. Please review. It's my first fanfict. :
1. Chapter 1

Melissa unzipped her back pack and dug down in until she found her journal and a pen. She situated herself under a shady tree facing the school cafeteria and started writing.

"Dear Journal,

With a blink of our eyes everything can change. Everything that we know to be true can be altered in one second, one simple moment, but yet, throughout our entire lives, or at least a large portion of them, some things never change, even if it is not apparent at first. Trials and temptations may leave us struggling for breath, but somehow the many of us still continue. Sometimes I wonder if we, the survivors or Flight 29 DWN are a part of those who will still continue and make it. I know we made it on the island alone, but can we survivor when others are around us in the real world? Can our friendships survive the storms that come to us in everyday life? Can we find the food that can help keep us going?

Everything was different on the island. It was just me, Jackson, Daley, Lex, Taylor, Eric and Nathan, and for just a short amount of time Ian, Jory, Abby and Captain Russell. We all eventually got to know each other well. There was nothing really pushing our friendship to collapse. We all needed each other to survive, but, well, back in the real world can our friendship really last? We're all in such different groups, all being pulled in different direction. Of course, Lex isn't even in high school yet. Daley has always been born for perfection. Taylor is the princess, always in the popular crowd, even now. I bet her popular 'friends' don't know that she plays cello or can fish though. As for Eric he's off hanging out with his slacker friends that he had before the trip, although like everyone else he seems kind of detached from the people he use to think he could relate to the best. Nathan is still working hard to keep his 4.0 GPA and scheming on how to become class president, although he's come to terms with the idea Daley might beat him again. He doesn't seem to mind that so much. Ian, Jory, Abby and Captain Russell we never got to know really well, but from what I've heard they're all doing fine, although Captain Russell, after trying to torch the camp, has decided to take some counseling session. And then there's Jackson. He's been the one I've been the closest to since we've gotten back. We talk a lot, but we still have yet to initiate the relationship we talking about back on the island. Things seem to be back to normal for the most part and that's what upsets me most.

The group that decided to stay behind, Lex, Jackson, Daley, Eric, Taylor, Nathan, and I should all be best friends now, and well some of us more than friends. We're all just being pushed in so many different directions that we don't know what to do. Some times I wish we could all be back on the island, without having to worry which different crowds we're a part of. I miss being close friends with everyone. Mostly though, I miss Jackson. I think I love him. It's painful to watch him walk by and know I'm not with him. I just miss him."

"Hi Mel! Wow a written journal, it's odd to see one of those instead of the camera we used when we were on the island," a voice murmured over Melissa. She knew the voice automatically. It had a sound to it that she'd never let herself forget, no matter what was going on in her life.

"Ha, ya, I kind of miss using the video camera," Melissa responded. Slowly she looked up and her eyes met the guy she'd been dreaming about for months.

"Mind if I sit down?" Jackson asked her.

"No, go ahead," she smiled, but Jackson didn't look too happy, so her smile quickly ended.

"I'm moving."


	2. Chapter 2

Melissa ran into her room and closed the door quickly behind her. She locked it just to make sure no one saw her. Tears flowed down her face, and a fear seemed to scho through out her eyes. She quickly grabbed her journal out of her bag.

"_Well hi again," _she wrote, _"it's been about a month since we were rescued, and it just seems things have been falling apart. Nothing is right anymore. Life on the island was simpler. Find food water and shelter, and above all LIVE. Now everything is different. We have everything we need to survive and with that comes more drama. We got it on the island, but it wasn't so bad. We could deal with it then. Everything is going to change now. Jackson is moving. I can't believe it Jackson is moving. I just wish he could be adopted. Why does he have to go from foster family to foster family. It's not right. He should have one home with one family." _she wrote. Tears fell from her face leaving marks on the page, but today she didn't care. She wouldn't hide her face now writing this was too important. _"I'm so afraid of the future. You know, you'd think I 'd be more afraid when I was fighting to live, fighting for food and clean water, but I'm not. I'm more afraid of loosing the best friend I've ever had. He said he liked me too while we were on the island. Maybe he still does. Maybe I can still talk to him…."_

There was a knock on her door. Melissa wiped her eyes of and took a deep breath. "Ya?" she asked.

"Honey there's a friend here for you," her mom said softly. "You want to let him in?" Melissa slowly got up and opened her door.

"Wow, I knew your room would be clean but I didn't think it would be this clean," Jackson said. Melissa knew he was trying to say something to give a lighter atmosphere. A small smile crept on her face but soon disappeared as she made eye contact with him and remembered once again that he was moving.

" You ran off so quickly today after I told you I was moving. I wanted to fill you in on the rest."

"Come sit down." The pair sat down on the perfectly made bed facing each other, both with crossed-legs. Jackson reached for Melissa's hands and held them firmly.

"Mel, I'm moving to a different foster home. I haven't met them yet. I don't know what they're like, but I've been told they're great."

"P-please don't leave," her tears started up again dripping down off her nose and landing on her and Jackson's hands below. She quickly tried to rus them aside, but Jaskson grabbed her hands again.

"It'll all be fine," he told her, 'We don't see each other much as is."

"I know, " she cried, "that's been hurting me too. I can't imagine hardly ever getting to see you Cody," she said.

"you just called me Cody," Jackson whispered softly, "No one ever calls me that. Why did you call me that?" He seemed perplexed.

"I've always thought it was a nice name. My mom wanted to name me that if I was a boy. When you told me that that is your name right before we left the island it just stuck with me. I've been wanting to call you that but I didn't know when," Melissa said tears still rolling down her cheeks.

Jackson looked down at his watch. "I'm so sorry Mel, but I have to get going to my home, my new foster parents are coming to meet me. I leave in a couple of days though. We can hang out a lot before I leave."

"Sure," Mel looked down at her feet crossed on the bed wishing herself to believe this was just all a dream. Jackson stood up and walked to the door.

"See ya tomorrow at school," he slightly smiled.

"See ya."


	3. Chapter 3

"_Dear Diary,_

_Normal. Isn't that what we're all looking for? Just a normal pattern to our lives. Of course a surprise is good every once in awhile, but when it comes down to it all we want is just a pattern. I once had a teacher who wouldn't rearrange her room at all throughout the year and all each and every desk had to be in the exact same spot no matter what by the end of class because she said if they weren't, even if we didn't realize it on the surface, it messed with our minds. When things change it just hurts. So why are they letting Jackson move?! Jackson said on the island that he didn't mind being out there having to work hard to survive. He said it was nicer than his life back here at home. I understand where he was coming from now. How often does he move anyhow? He's hardly even been here."_

Melissa had been writing underneath the big oak tree again, near the cafeteria. It was her favorite spot. That was the place she first met Jackson, but now she wasn't sure if it was such a good place, after all it was the place she found out the guy she had fallen for was moving.

"_You know, I've sat under that same tree to write in my journal at school everyday since we got back from the island. It _was_ were I met Jackson_, _where I first started liking him, but I'm not sure if I can write here much more especially after Jackson moves. It'd be too painful, but it'd be just another change, something else the is altered after Jackson is gone. Why does he have to leave?"_

Melissa felt someone sit down next to her and look directly at her. She met the look. It was Jackson.

"Mel, I'm not moving" he said. He didn't sound happy though. He sounded scared and nervous.

"You're not, that's great!" she cried.

"My new foster parents don't know that yet though. I can't go Mel. This is the first place I've really had friends. It's the first place there's been a girl I really like," he kind of smiled, but looked away nervously and quickly. Melissa took a deep breath in. She new what he meant by "a girl he really liked". She thought about the day on the island when he told her he liked her too, but she knew that now wasn't the time to get into that.

"What? What are you going to do Jackson? How are you staying?"

"I don't know yet, but if I learned anything from living stranded it's that if I really want something then I can do it or make it."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Flight 29 Down nor any of the characters. This story is not being used for profit.

"_You know, I don't usually write. I do what's needed for school and whatever else, but that's the end. Lately though I've felt like I need to write something down. I'm scared. I told Melissa the other day that I'm moving, which so far is true, but I also told that I'm going to find a way out of it. I don't know how though. I've been thinking, planning. I can't move again. It's just not an option. I can't tell anyone this, how I really think, how afraid I am, the only one that would understand all of this I would be too embarrassed to tell. I couldn't tell her how frightened I am, how nervous I get when I think about moving, and above all how much I think I'm in love with her. With moving seemingly in my near future and feeling like I'm completely in love petrifies me. How can I tell that girl I love her and then just move away? I don't want to break her heart. I think I already have. I told her that I really liked her while we were on the island, but I haven't gone through with anything now we're back home. How am I suppose to tell her? "Oh ya Melissa, by the way I think I love you, oh and I'm moving farther than I thought I was…all the way across state instead of across town." I need to find a way out of moving. I need to…" _Jackson wrote on a scrap piece of paper, _"Melissa and I, well we hardly talk anymore. When I came to her house and explained I'm moving it was one of the first times we've had a real conversations in awhile. Then there's the rest of the kids from Flight 29 DWN. I still need to tell them. Our friendship lately has seemed to collapse. We're all going back to our cliques, and me as the loner again. I've been getting those weird looks again like when I fist moved here, you know, like they think I really do deserve to go to juvie. They don't know me or my story, but Melissa, she does. She's the entire reason I don't want to move, and in hopes that all the Flight 29 DWN kids can get back together, be as bonded as we were on the trip. Why can't everything be somewhat normal? Why can't I have just one home and one home only instead of tons of different houses I just switch between? I've learned at least one thing from being a foster kid, there's a difference between a house and a home. A house is just a building, homes have love enough to share with everyone. " _

A soft breeze ruffled Jackson's short hair and the leaves of trees softly swayed in the wind. Jackson let the sun warm him. He had decided to sit in the spot that he had seen Melissa write at so many time. He had thought that if this place made Melissa feel like she could write why couldn't it make him, and after all it was the place he first met her. Oh how he wished he could turn back the clock on that day and have invited her to sit down next to him, or have talked to her a little more, but that was the past and they were good friends now anyways, or at least better friends than everyone else in the crash. No one had really talked since then. _"Maybe some of the memories are just too painful," _he had thought to himself before.

"_I can't believe I'm writing this anyways. What if someone finds it and knows how I really feel? What if they find out?" _Jackson wrote. He looked down at his paper grabbed it and crumpled it up into a ball. His eyes locked on the nearest trashcan and he threw it away, hoping that no one would ever see it.

"_What was that about?" _Melissa wondered, watching Jackson sulk off after throwing that paper away. _"Normally I'm not nosey, but Jackson looks worried lately," _she walked by the trash can and grabbed the paper out of the trash can and slowly smoothed it out, watching to make sure Jackson was looking. She quickly read it. Her heart leaped for a moment at the thought that Jackson really did like her too. She quickly stopped though and reread _"How am I suppose to tell her? Oh ya Melissa, by the way I think I love you, oh and I'm moving farther than I thought I was…all the way across state instead of across town." _

"I have to help Jackson stay"where the last words to cross her mind as she sat down by the garbage can crying.

Ya, I know it's not that great of a chapter. I couldn't think of how to develop it, but I'm working. J


	5. Chapter 5

"You're running for school president again?"

"Yes, Nathan. You think I'd skip out this year? I won last year. I can win again now," Daley looked at him. Competitiveness glistened in her eyes, but a smile crossed her face. Her normal calloused, competitive natured was drowned out by her smile.

_Oh that smile. _Nathan thought. _How can I win the school election against that smile? I have to win though. If I win it would impress her. She'd think I was smarter and more important. She might like me more. You know, we've hardly talked since we got back from the island._

"So, uhm, how's life been going for you since we've been back?" he was trying hard not to stutter around her.

"It's been good. I missed my bed a lot. I forgot how soft it was. I also forgot how hard it is to keep a 4.0 gpa with all my college prep classes."

"Oh how are those classes going?" Nathan didn't really want the answer to that question. He knew she'd say that they were great and not challenging at all.

"Actually, I'm not doing so well," _WHAT! She just admitted to be struggling at something. She never does that! _

"Well, I have to get going," he muttered and ran off as quickly as he could.

Nathan sat down at the cafeteria table with his group of friends surrounding him. They were talking about the test in his advanced biology class. He just listened. He didn't really care anymore. Survival of the fittest. He knew all about that. He lived it. You don't find food, you don't eat. You don't find a way to build shelter, you don't live. It was as simple as that on the island. He learned so much there that school couldn't teach him. Academically and when it comes to life. He learned about caring for other people and watching out for their needs. He watched how Melissa and Jackson's relationship developed. He was jealous of those two. It seemed to him like they'd be friends through anything. If only he and Daley could be that way.

"NATHAN!" He faintly heard the yelling of his friends, "NATHAN, SNAP OUT OF IT!" He shook his head and went back to reality, "You were spacing out Nathan," one of his friends told him, "We thought you'd finally lost it. You ok?"

"Ya, I'm fine," he looked down at the watch on his wrist, "Hey, I have to go now. I'll see you guys in calculus."

"Wow, what's gotten into him," he heard another of his friends mutter as Nathan walked away, "He hasn't been himself since that stupid trip."

_They will never understand what happened to me, _Nathan thought, _They will never know what went on. They don't know how hard it was just to survive. While we were near dying they were here with their fancy little houses and private tutors. While on the island I never thought that when I got home I'd miss it back there._


End file.
